Thread: SOB -Mexican immigrants struggle to survive in tough times

Mexican immigrants struggle to survive in tough times

Last Update: 8:16 am

By MARIANA ALVARADO


Sandra Rivas is storing furniture for her niece, who was forced to move in with her in-laws in Arizona because of the economic downturn. She's loaned grocery money to two brothers who lost their construction jobs.

"It breaks my heart every time they say they have nothing in the fridge," says Rivas, 47, who is a social worker.

Her predicament is common these days among Mexican immigrant families in which relatives move to the United States and often rely on them for support -- an obligation that has become more difficult.

Rivas came to the United States legally 20 years ago and helped her siblings and other relatives wanting to live and work here.

After losing her job two months ago, Rivas is trying to help her family members who are struggling with new laws that have made it more difficult to find and keep jobs.

Despite predictions that tough new work laws and economic woes in the United States would force foreign workers to return to their native countries, many -- like some of Rivas' relatives -- are trying to stay.

Hard times here have spread across the border, and jobs in Mexico -- already scarce -- have all but dried up.

Mexican officials and advocates who deal with the immigration community say that people are doing whatever it takes to remain in the United States.

Seventy-six percent of Latinos and 84 percent of foreign-born Latinos say their personal finances are fair or poor, compared to 63 percent for the general U.S. population, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The report also shows that more than one in four Latinos helped a family member or a friend with a loan during the past year.

"About 28 percent said they have made a loan. That's a pretty large number," says Mark Hugo Lopez, the Pew Hispanic Center's associate director.

With or without a job, Rivas says, she will not give up, and while she looks for a job, she plans to keep educating illegal immigrants about their rights, especially those who have been affected by Arizona's employer sanctions law, which puts businesses that hire illegal workers at risk of losing their business licenses.

"I thought we all were going to be doing great. I thought we all were going to succeed," says Rivas. "I thought if I made it, they would make it, too. But it's been difficult."

Rivas lent money to relatives and doesn't anticipate being repaid.

"I lent about $500 to one of my brothers months ago. And I've lent them $20 to buy gas or some other stuff," says Rivas, who has been spending her savings and income from a rental house she and her husband own.

As with other immigrants, Rivas' family is willing to do anything to stay in the United States. That includes taking informal jobs, working under dangerous conditions and going to extraordinary lengths to remain employed, she says.

Rivas' sister, who works at a day-care center, is working 12 hours a day because her husband lost his construction job.

The impact is being felt in Mexico. Banco de Mexico announced that immigrants sent about $931million less in 2008 than 2007. Remittances are the second biggest source of income for Mexico. The illegal-immigrant population in the United States declined from 12.5 million to 11.2 million in the past year, says a report released in July by the Center for Immigration Studies, an independent non-profit organization.

But other reports question that. There is some "anecdotal evidence that return migration to some countries, including Mexico, appears to have increased," says a report from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), but this evidence cannot be tied definitively to U.S. economic conditions or to tougher enforcement of immigration laws, the report says.

Judy Gans, program manager for immigration policy at the University of Arizona's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, said illegal immigrants are leaving "but it is not yet clear whether they are returning to their home countries or relocating to other parts of the United States."

E-mail Mariana Alvarado at malvarado(at) azstarnet.com



http://www.abc15.com/content/news/centr ... cm1ow.cspx

There is some "anecdotal evidence that return migration to some countries, including Mexico, appears to have increased

Keep em' moving south!!

We may struggle here, but with less illegal aliens, and hopefully more leaving, we can get back on track and move forward in this country.

So sorry that Mexico cannot stand on its own "feet" and the citizens in that nation suffer, but if they all go home, we can get out of this financial quagmire and begin to help them in their home nation, to be a more productive and civilized nation for the betterment of their own people.

Send them packing every single one and pull the visa or green card for every single legal immigrant who aided and abetted an illegal alien family member. You can't trust them to abide our laws, only to circumvent them when they harbor illegal alien family members.

Sorry, but they should have counted their blessings when they were granted legal permission to enter the US instead of spitting on the laws and people of a country who gave them that opportunity.

OUT! OUT! OUT! Homeward Bound, Now!

The report also shows that more than one in four Latinos helped a family member or a friend with a loan during the past year.

"About 28 percent said they have made a loan. That's a pretty large number," says Mark Hugo Lopez, the Pew Hispanic Center's associate director.

Why not ask and find out how many people of other races are helping out friends and family members......bet it's alot more than 28%.

After losing her job two months ago, Rivas is trying to help her family members who are struggling with new laws that have made it more difficult to find and keep jobs.

Gee. American citizens are suffering because laws aren't being enforced and the economy is tanking, they haven't broken any laws and are struggling to survive as well and have no "home" to run back to.

Rivas came to the United States legally 20 years ago and helped her siblings and other relatives wanting to live and work here.

Well if it can be proven that she aided and abetted illegal immigrants (even if they were relatives) I say REVOKE her citizenship!